this was a key moment in the campaign where it lookedly maybe romney would be able to come back. obama's campaign team always thought this moment was exaggerated. the president's team always thought that was overblown, but certainly this was a big moment in the campaign. the president felt very down afterwards as glen and jonathan martin report in their new e-book what a tough period that was for the president. he had to find win himself and come back. >> so raching, finish it off, bring it to today. there's the fiscal cliff. got to be the most recent of the big points in politics for 2012. >> absolutely. that shows just how fleeting a victory is in this town. president obama won a stronger than predicted victory. he basically got every state that was seen as being open up for play, up for grabs. he won them all. he won ohio. he won virginia, he won fa fla. he campaigned largely on this issue of middle-class tax cuts, fairness for the middle class, give the middle class a chance. he saw his win as a validation of the strategy, this philosophy that he ran on, but now we've country